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Ogre Sized ad Campaign

Hewlett-Packard, Sierra Mist, Dial Soap, and M&M's. All four of these companies have something in common. They're all helping to market one very special movie.
Donkey in the Dial Soap commercial.

Shrek 2 has just entered the movie theater with a bang. And not only the big screen, but the small one as well. Dreamworks definitely knows how to convince other companies to side with them. You probably noticed the plethora of ad related to The Cat in the Hat. Not to mention the endless stamping of 'Cat' stuff on basic trinkets and calling it, "Official movie merchandise". Well, Dreamworks has done it again, taking a movie sure to be a box office hit (Which "Cat" was, even though it wasn't big with the critics) and marketing it to the extreme. Shrek 2 first made an appearance in, of course, its own TV trailer. Almost each of those featured the hilarious bit, "It's Sleeping Beauty!" and the poor princess literally falling out of her carriage.

Then came the commercial that probably had the most cause to do a Shrek 2 related ad. Hewlett-Packard did a very hilarious live action/animation combination featuring the character of Donkey (Shrek's best pal) questioning the whereabouts of his missing mane to the animators, who answer, "It's realistic...". The reason Hewlett-Packard had total justification to do this was that they had actual involvement in the making of Shrek. It can only be said in their words;

"In working with DreamWorks, HP researchers developed advanced capabilities for service configuration and management of data centers. In addition, they created comprehensive instrumentation to collect terabytes of system data used to optimize performance and reliability."

Besides that, HP made a special data center with 500 HP connections to link up to Dreamworks. And apparently, HP's been there from the start, "HP’s partnership with DreamWorks began in 2001, when the companies worked together on "Shrek." HP provides the filmmaker’s computing infrastructure, which DreamWorks has credited for helping it break new ground technically, creatively and financially on several feature films." Read the whole story here at the HP website

Meanwhile, the commercials with less of an excuse showed up. M&M's featured an ad for "Ogre sized candies" meaning that they filled the little circle candies to their fullest. In the ad, Red and Yellow are walking in the woods with Shrek and Donkey. Yellow suggests the candies are under a spell. Shrek mentions that when spells need to be broken, it usually involves kissing...The best excuse for this commercial's relation to the ogre is that it's a combination of well known, and similarly animated characters.

Sierra Mist's commercial had not relation whatsoever. In it, Donkey annoys the heck out of Shrek and his new bride Fiona on a carriage ride by constantly asking, "Are we there yet? I'm gettin' SO hot out here!" (Naturally, donkey is in the outdoor back seat). Shrek finally can't put up with it and flings donkey so high he reaches the moon, and consequently completely freezes over due to space's cold air. Donkey even gets to do the classic gulp and 'ahh' during the announcer's "Yeah, it's kinda like that". In the end donkey returns to earth asking, "Can we do that again?". I love donkey, but I don't think this commercial really did him justice. If Shrek could throw Donkey that far, he would've done it a long time ago. Sierra Mist obviously didn't go all out with this one (Sadly, the company has even taken to copying its parent company, Pepsi, in a the commercial featuring a man getting stuck in a pitcher of water. Most saw the similarity of this to the Pepsi commercial of 1995 featuring a boy and his undying love for Pepsi which leads to a very tight situation).

Lastly, I haven't been able to judge the Dial Soap commercial having not seen it, but from what I've heard, it's good material. It features Shrek pulling some junk out of his ear (an everyday thing for him) and placing it in a sink. Donkey soon comes by, mistakes the junk for hair gel, and slicks it through his mane. The commercial ends with the line, "You're not as clean as you think." No relation, but at least this one sounds funny.

Think that isn't a lot of publicity? Well, there's something else. The Cat in the Hat did the same thing when it was released. Take a good look at your mail and around your post office. Yes, that's right, Dreamworks even has a partnership with the U. S. Postal Service to stick Shrek on some mail you receive or send. Amazing, isn't it?

Well, by now you've probably logged onto Fandango and ordered your Shrek 2 tickets. If not, maybe you should. The critics say it was better then the first!

Comments

On a related note, if you can't catch the movie yet, here's the first five minutes. Trailers were never this tasty... ;)the Ogre sized M&Ms commercial and wallpapers can be downloaded/viewed under that link. and ... x-entertainment has been collecting/keeping tabs shrek-stuff. He's everywhere!!!! aaarrrr!

The product placement in Shrek 2 is simply hideous. The brand names are smuggled in via olde fairytale jokes (Barneys Old York, Versachery, Pork Illustrated, Tower of London Records) and one or two of these gags would be fine, but the film is larded with in-jokes, mouldy movie spoofs (that From Here to Eternity beach scene yet again), cover versions of hit songs, and a glut of pop-culture references. (the DreamWorks boss Spielberg gets two homages.)